


Beacon of Hope

by Actually_Felicity_Smoak



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-28
Updated: 2016-04-28
Packaged: 2018-05-30 21:33:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6441610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Actually_Felicity_Smoak/pseuds/Actually_Felicity_Smoak





	Beacon of Hope

Space Ranger Martin Stein looked up as a news broadcast came up on the speakers. He was on leave, and was passing a pleasant two weeks on Apis. For 8 days, he'd enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at this little cafe, and spent the morning watching the passing people.

But now the late morning peace was interrupted by a buzzing emergency broadcast. Everyone stopped to listen, the passers-by huddling in to hear the words on the patio speakers.

Stein listened along with everyone else. Apparently an office building downtown had been taken hostage by an army of robots. No word yet on what terrorists' aims were, or if they'd made any demands.

Stein hesitated. He was on leave, and it wasn't his fight. But why had he become a Space Ranger if not to protect innocent people from terrorism? Pausing only to solicit directions from a local, he checked his blaster in its holster and headed downtown.

\--

Once he arrived in the city center, it was easy enough to find the action. Police had cordoned off a large area, about two blocks around a skyscraper whose neon proclaimed it to be Pilgrim Technology. Stein presented himself at the perimeter.

"Space Ranger Martin Stein!" He informed the guards at what appeared to be the main approach. "I've come to offer my assistance."

The two guards eyed him. Then looked at each other. Finally one shrugged and unclipped the rope across the road.

"Better you than me." She said as she waved him through.

\--

A few minutes' conversation served to brief him on the situation. The target had apparently not been random; demands, if there were any, had been made to the board of directors whose meeting had been interrupted; the robots were being controlled from inside the building; no strategy had yet found success getting through the robots' lines.

"We certainly appreciate the offer, Ranger Stein, but I can't imagine how one more blaster can make much of a difference." The police chief concluded.

"Well, if military strategy isn't working, perhaps force isn't the solution." Stein suggested mildly. At the bewildered looks he received he added "Hold my blaster, please." Handing the holster belt to the nearest officer, he walked unarmed towards Pilgrim Technology's main entrance.

\--

It was a risk, but a calculated one. The robots had to have some autonomy, to be useful, but they appeared to be primarily designed to carry out pre-existing orders. Presented with a new situation, they would have to request instruction. Stein was betting that they'd been programmed to blast only clear threats, rather than everything that came within a certain distance.

He stopped as the robot sentries pointed their weapons at him. _Now we find out_.

"Halt!" An electronic voice projected. Stein remained motionless.

"Leave this area."

Stein held his breath, and waited.

"Leave this area." The robot repeated.

 _No threats, so far._ That was either very good, or very bad. If the machine was programmed to shoot after a certain period of disobedience, it would likely have been programmed to say "Leave this area or I will shoot." That it wasn't threatening hopefully meant it hadn't been programmed to shoot as long as Stein kept his distance. _Or else it was programmed to shoot without warning._ Only one way to find out. Stein took long, deep breaths, and stood very still.

\--

It took about 15 minutes -- 93 repetitions of "Leave this area", to be exact-- but eventually a woman's voice spoke through the robot's speakers. "What do you want?"

"My name is Space Ranger Martin Stein, ma'am. I want..." Stein considered the question. "I want this .. situation to end without anyone dying, if possible."

Shrill laughter through the speakers. "And just how do you propose to manage that?"

"I certainly don't have enough information to formulate a plan yet. I need to know more about the situation before we can hope to come to an agreeable solution. In the meanwhile, might I suggest a more comfortable venue for this conversation? As you can see, I'm unarmed."

There was a long pause while the robot looked him up and down. Then it lowered its weapon, and clamped a claw around Stein's arm.

"Very well. My minion will escort you."

\--

Stein found himself in a corner office on the fourteenth floor. A not-unattractive, if slightly disheveled, blonde woman sat behind the desk. The robot had locked the door after releasing his arm, and now stood guard in front of the only exit.

Stein stood at attention. "Space Ranger Martin Stein, ma'am. Good to meet you face to face. Do you happen to have any coffee? Only my morning cup was disrupted by the news broadcast."

The woman gave him a level look. After a long silence, she gave a short nod. "I'll have some delivered. Now talk."

"May I sit down?" Stein gestured to the chairs in front of the desk. At her nod, he pulled one out and gracefully seated himself. "I've introduced myself. Would you be so kind as to return the favor?"

She eyed him warily. "I'm Brie."

No surname and no title, but it would do for now. "Well, Brie, I'm really, at the moment, trying to get a handle on what's going on here."

"It's quite simple." The woman smiled, covering a snarl of rage. "Pilgrim Tech has something I need. I'm keeping my army here until they give it to me."

"And what, exactly..." Stein broke off as the sentry robot opened the door and accepted a steaming mug. It re-locked the door, and then stood, holding the mug.

"Oh, for heaven's sake!" The woman cried in exasperation. "Of all of the things to fail...!" She stood up, walked over to the robot, and grabbed the coffee. She set the mug in front of Stein with ill grace, and stomped back to her chair behind the desk. Stein didn't miss her limp, or the way her leg collapsed from underneath her as she sat.

"I beg your pardon, ma'am, are you well?"

"No, I'm bloody not!" She burst out. "I've got a tumor wrapped around my spinal cord, and with every passing day it cuts off a little more nerve function."

"But surely there's a surgery that can...."

She cut him off, tears in her eyes. "Of course there is. They can cut it out, no problem. But do you know what the spinal cord actually looks like? Consistency of peanut butter. By the time they've cut deeply enough to get all the cancer out, they'll have severed it straight through. I'll never walk again."

Stein was silent for a moment. "I'm sorry to hear that." Then, since they had something of a conversation going, "But what does ... Pilgrim Technology have to do with it?"

She snorted. "Don't tell me you've missed all their press releases, their little fairy tale."

"Space Ranger, ma'am. I've been on this planet a little over a week."

She looked out the window, her jaw clenched. Finally she spoke. "Six months ago, the CEO of Pilgrim Tech was in a lightflyer accident. Her spinal cord was severed. They said she'd never walk again." There was a long pause, while the woman made an almost-growling noise under her breath. "Three weeks ago, Pilgrim Tech called a press conference. The CEO waited until the room was quiet, and then stood up..." Brie clenched her teeth, "stood up and announced that Pilgrim Tech had a new spinal column microchip, which they would be selling for a mere hundred thousand credits."

Stein took that in. He drank his coffee. He looked at Brie, looking out the window. He drank more coffee.

Finally he set his mug down, and cleared his throat. "So to return to our previous topic of conversation, what _you_ want is a spinal microchip."

"Yes. Obviously." She said shortly.

Stein rose to his feet, and made a brief bow in her direction. "And would you be so kind as to tell me where I can find the CEO of Pilgrim Technology?"

\--

The CEO turned out to be also a not-unattractive blonde woman. While Stein had distracted Brie, she had smuggled most of the board of directors out of the building through a secret exit. That she had a secret exit spoke of her foresight. That she had smuggled the directors out first, rather than simply fleeing herself, spoke of her compassion. Stein began to feel that his plan had a good chance of working.

"I'm Felicity Fyum. Who are you, and how did you get in here?"

"Space Ranger Martin Stein, ma'am. I came to see if a peaceful resolution could be found for this..." His hand gesture encompassed the building, the robots, the police cordon, "..situation."

Felicity raised her eyebrows, and gestured him towards a chair. "Do tell."

Stein took the offered seat, and began, "I understand you are to be congratulated on your recent recovery."

Felicity smiled, as one reminded of a pleasant memory, and wiggled her feet. "Thank you, yes."

"It must have been quite a shock for you, after your lightflyer accident...?" Stein trailed off invitingly.

Felicity looked thoughtful. "My fiancé was incredibly supportive. And of course I'm fortunate to have a job that doesn't require full mobility. But yes, it was a devastating time."

"And, it seems, you were fortunate to be head of a company capable of developing the technology to repair the damage."

She gave a brief nod of agreement. "The chip doesn't really repair the damage -- it actually bridges the gap left between the broken nerve endings. But yes. I was lucky in many ways." She tilted her head curiously. "What does this have to do with the current situation?"

"There's a young woman downstairs who is not so fortunate as you." He paused, and watched Felicity's face as she looked puzzled, then horrified.

"Are you saying...?"

"Yes. The cancer can be treated, but not without severing her spinal column."

Felicity turned away, looked out the window across the city. "We knew she was after the chip. She said she'd start killing board members if we didn't give it up. But she didn't say why. We assumed she wanted to sell it..." She turned back to face Stein. "There's only one chip, so far. I was the first trial surgery of the first prototype."

"That took courage." Stein gave her a respectful nod. "As did remaining behind when the others left. You're now the only remaining board member available to kill."

They sat in silence for a few minutes. Stein said gently, "What would you have done, Miss Fyum, to have a chance at walking again?"

"I certainly wouldn't have taken armed forces and threatened innocent hostages!" She snapped.

"I grant Brie has made some bad choices." Stein caught Felicity's eye. "I'm willing to bet you've made some choices, in the last six months, that you'd undo if you could." A corner of her mouth crooked up in wry agreement. 

"I spent some time talking to her, and watching her interaction with her army," he continued. "Are you aware that she carries no control device for the robots?" Felicity sat up, startled. Stein nodded. "It appears that she's using a neurological interface to control her 'minions'. And since someone in her circumstances probably couldn't get anything custom-made, she's almost certainly using off-the-shelf parts to do it. Now I'm neither a business man nor an electrical engineer, but it seems to me that a corporation that depends on developing impressive new technologies could find a good use for a direct neurological control device... and for an inventor who can make such a thing with spare parts." He made his tone as persuasive as he could. "You could give Brie a new chance at life in more ways than one."

\--

From there it was a lot of back-and-forth. Stein, stretching his neck in the elevator, decided not to try and count how many times he'd been shuttled between the fourteenth floor and the thirtieth. But things were going smoothly, now. Brie had moved her robots into a nearby park, and powered them off. The police had dropped their perimeter. Stein was taking the employment contract for what he hoped was the final review by Pilgrim Technology's lawyers. Then he could get back to his comfy room in his bed and breakfast, and sleep in tomorrow...

\--

Stein groped for his communicator in the pre-dawn darkness. His disgruntled command had failed to shut off the alarm, which meant it was a message direct from headquarters. The blasted thing would keep beeping until he had read and responded.

SHORESIDE LEAVE CANCELLED. REPORT TO HEADQUARTERS IMMEDIATELY.

Space Ranger Martin Stein swore, creatively and at length.


End file.
